The GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.

THE GOOD: Wade Davis. Well, more specifically, Davis in all innings except the 3rd. In his other 6 innings of work, Davis had five 1-2-3 innings…Ben Zobrist. Zorilla is quietly have a very good season. After a 2-hit day, his average is still just .259, but he has 9 home runs, a .332 OBP and a .809 OPS. And he is trending upwards. He has 2 hits in 4 of his last 5 games…Kelly Shoppach. As much as we have bashed Shopp (deservedly so), it is only fair we point out his 2-hit game. His first multi-hit game of the year.

THE BAD: But. Davis did struggle in the 3rd and 7th innings. Both of those innings he gave the leadoff hitter a free pass (1 hit by pitch, 1 walk). And both of those runners would eventually score...Bullpen. JP Howell and Joel Peralta are supposed to be the cornerstones of a revamped bullpen. But both pitchers continue to struggle. Combined, the two faced 6 batters. Four of those batters reached base. And all 4 would score, with 3 coming on a home run off of Peralta. It was the second straight outing in which Peralta gave up a long ball.

THE TELLING: Evan Longoria did not start after feeling a twinge in his oblique, but did pinch hit in the 8th. His 2-run single gave the Rays the lead. He is expected back in the lineup today.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

The Rule 4 draft begins tonight at 7pm with the first and supplemental rounds. The Rays will have 10 of the 60 picks, with all falling between picks 24 and 60.

Andrew Friedman on tonight’s draft: “The more arrows you have, the more likely you are to hit the bull’s-eye.” [NY Times]

John Romano writes about the Bay Area’s “Golden Age” of owners. [TampaBay.com]

At first, we wondered how this got past quality control. But let’s face it, there are probably more than a few fans that would wear this hat. [Twitter]

DURHAM 5, Pawtucket 4: Alex Torres once again struggled with his control walking 6 with just 2 Ks in 4.2 innings. He allowed 4 runs (3 earned). He has now walked at least 5 in 3 of his last 5 starts…Jake McGee struck out 2 and walked 1 in 2 scoreless innings…Ryan Reid was back in the bullpen, striking out 2, but walking 3 in 1.2 shutout innings…CF Desmond Jennings was 2-4 with a double and his 9th home run…RF Brandon Guyer went 1-4 with a double and his 9th stolen base…LF Chris Carter hit his 8th home run…C Robinson Chirinos was 0-3 with a walk.

Mississippi 3, MONTGOMERY 2: After tying the game with a Stephen Vogt RBI-single in the 8th, the Biscuits gave up the lead in the 9th on a 2-out single off of Frank de los Santos…Matt Moore started, giving up 2 runs in 6 innings on 5 hits and 3 walks. He struck out 5…SS Tim Beckham was 1-4 with a double…RF Kyeong Kang hit his second home run.

CHARLOTTE 6, Bradenton 1: Alex Colome allowed just 1 run in 6 innings. He struck out 2 and walked 1…SS Hak-Ju Lee was 2-4 with a triple and a stolen base. His .350 average leads the FSL. His 7 triples and 16 steals are both second. His .928 OPS is third.

BOWLING GREEN 2, Beloit 1: CJ Riefenhauser tossed 7 shutout innings, striking out 6 and walking just 1. His ERA is now 2.45…3B Julio Cedeno went 2-4 with a game-tying home run in the 9th…The Hot Rods won the game in the 10th on a Todd Wunderlich RBI-single…SS Derek Dietrich did not play.

4 Comments

To me, this is "the one where we concede that the bullpen really isn't that good, just as we feared at the start of the season." And Cork, it really all does date to your post where you note that their early success was at least partly luck!

I liked Peralta early, but someone else has to fill that roll and it's fairly obvious that JP needs more work in less-stress situations. Last year we were a weak hitting team that managed to produce runs with aggression, a team with average starting pitching, a team with a great bullpen, and a team with wonderful defense.

This year - weak hitting without the run production, very good starting pitching, a shaky bullpen, and meh defense.